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bottom boards

This will be my first try at beekeeping. I live in nw oklahoma. the summers are hot and the winters are cold. Should I use solid bottom boards or screened bottoms? I kinda like the idea of using screened with the mite boards but don't know for sure wich to use. Thanks Archie

Re: bottom boards

archa haymaker... use the search box, upper right, enter bottom boards, or enter solid vrs screen bottom board, and you will find lots of comments on both screen and solid bottom boards to add to the ones you will get here. There are about as many that like one or the other and vice versa.

Re: bottom boards

Not really. A mite falls through the screen and is programmed to just sit there waiting for another bee to come along and attach itself. Being below the screen it can't and, without a host, it eventually dies.

Re: bottom boards

Originally Posted by Keth Comollo

Not really. A mite falls through the screen and is programmed to just sit there waiting for another bee to come along and attach itself. Being below the screen it can't and, without a host, it eventually dies.

I'm not sure that's true. I remember in ABJ or BC a year or two ago reading an article by a researcher that had assumed the same thing, that mites really don't go very far. He had a bunch of mites in an open container on the floor or something a few feet away from his desk, and eventually felt them crawling on his leg (I think that was the story). Anyway, lesson is that mites will go a lot farther than you think to get back on a bee. The screened bottom and mite board mite provide some physical barrier in that the mite can't climb back into the hive, but maybe it can. Of course it can't if it's stuck in vaseline or something sticky.

Re: bottom boards

I've always felt that screened bottom boards did very little to keep mite counts down. For every mite that falls through there are hundreds of baby mites waiting to hatch. The only other reason I could see them being used is for ventilation. I don't know the science behind how the bees ventilate their hive; so, I don't worry about that too much. I have used solid bottom boards with no problems so far. Mostly because they are cheap and easy for me to build.

Re: bottom boards

The prevailing wisdom is for one that is starting out to have at least two hives, so that comparisons can be made if something goes wrong (and other reasons). If one was to do that, they could have one solid and one screened bottom board and see which one they prefer.